Adam

God’s Beloved

Less than five months after Nouwen began his year’s sabbatical, he received a call from Daybreak alerting him to the fact that his dear friend, Adam Arnett (See "Epilogue: Adam’s Story") was near death. Nouwen immediately boarded a plane and flew to his bedside. He arrived just in time to sit at his side, hold his hand, administer the last anointing, and wait out the hours till he would breathe his last. So moved was Nouwen by his death, he decided to write a book about his friend. Here we learn interesting details of Adam’s early childhood, his seemingly healthy condition as an infant, and only later the first signs of developmental disabilities, followed by the diagnosis of epilepsy.

The unique beauty of the story is Nouwen’s casting it in parallel to the Jesus Story:

"Adam’s Hidden Life/ Adam’s Desert/ Adam’s Public Life" — on through "Adam’s Passion, Death and Resurrection." Here is a moving story told as only Nouwen could tell it.

(Orbis Books, NY, 1997. Ninth Printing December 2006)

[go back]